I can't believe this 9+lb bundle of love is 9 years old! He is still the most caring, loving, tender, football/baseball/any sport loving kid. He is smart and so well behaved. He tells the longest stories ever. He will help his sister with anything. He would wear athletic clothes 24/7. He thinks his daddy hung the moon. His teachers always seem to love him. He is so eager to please. He memorizes sport stats/schedules/players. He watches SportCenter instead of cartoons on Saturday morning. He can tell a lie with a straight face. He would choose sweets over anything else. He can be a little OCD. He wants to be like his big brother. He is the middle child that we constantly worry about. ;) He is our Baby Crew Crew.

Today he is 9. We started the day with presents and a McDonalds breakfast. Then moved on to lunch at Chuck E. Cheese with Pop Pop and Ci Ci, Uncle Kyle, Aunt Melissa and the twins. The we celebrated his cousin's birthday at Sky Zone, then rushed home to greet five of his best buddies at our house for a sleepover. Chad took the boys to Incredible Pizza for a few games and go karts...then they are headed back here for pizza and junk food and a night of fun. I've already started in on the Sangria, so don't worry about me. ;)

Today is Crew's birthday and his favorite player is JJ Watt....so what else would I make??....JJ Watt cookies!

I've had these in my head ever since we went to a Texans game earlier this year and the kids got the JJ Watt stuffed doll. I thought "I could make that into a cookie!" I immediately asked Truly Mad Plastics to make me a cutter. (The Texans & foam finger cutters are also from TMP. ) But, I haven't had a chance to actually make the cookies, until now! It was my first time to try my hand at a realistic face. It was hard! But, I'm happy with how these turned out for my first try! I think Crew and his friends will enjoy eating JJ Watt!!

For the sake of class this month lets pretend your paper trimmer is broken....your punches, die- cutting machines, templates....all broken. All you have to cut paper with is your good ol' trusty scissors. Sure, all those things I listed sometimes make scrapbooking a bit easier, but how many times have you spent at least 10 minutes looking for one of them? I'm not going to tell you how much time I spend looking for things. This month, lets let loose a little and cut by hand. Now, you might be thinking that you have to be able to draw complex shapes and paper piecing patterns, not true. If you can, good for you, go for it! But I'm just talking about basic and simple shapes. I think you'll be really surprised at how this will make your page 'yours'. A little more handmade, a little more character, a little more lovely.

To make your own shapes first choose the patterned paper you want to use, turn it over and sketch the shape. It usually takes me a few sketches to get it just right, but thatʼs okay, no one can see the back! And then cut it out. To add a bit of dimension to the pieces I cut I adhered them with pop dots and also lightly inked the edges. You could also outline the shapes with a black pen, machine stitch, faux stitch, etc...

If you are uncomfortable sketching circles or scallops you could always start with a punch. For example, punch the circle then use your scissors to trim it down a bit. Then you will end up with a circle that looks hand cut and is close to a perfect circle. The beauty of hand cutting is that itʼs not supposed to be perfect!

What shapes can you cut for your page? Flowers, stars, hearts, squares, rectangles, birds, butterflies, cars, houses...... And you know whatʼs great about cutting your own embellishments? You can make them ANY size you want!

How can you dress up your layout with simple strips of Patterned Paper?

A million and one ways! Wide strips, skinny strips, horizontal, vertical, strips cut into a shape, tone on tone strips, strips with the same pattern but different colors, ....you get the idea! Strips are one of the easiest ways to use patterned papers, especially those that you find a bit busy to use in large doses. Most of my layouts arenʼt done until I have a skinny strip of striped paper on it somewhere.

This month I pushed the strip a little further....Instead of just cutting a 1⁄4” strip, I cut 3⁄4” strips and tri-folded them. The inspiration came from the ʻpaperʼ bowls, vases, and other decor Iʼve seen. This added a bit of extra texture and interest to the layout, just what I was looking for!

By simply folding these strips of paper I have created an interesting embellishment/ background element for my layout. I had first intended on covering a 10” x 10” piece of chipboard, but the folding became more time consuming than I had time for. So I trimmed the chipboard to 3” x 10” and covered it. Much faster! This would be an easy thing to work on while watching a movie. I was trying to work during nap time....so the quicker the better, especially when just as effective for the layout.

In an effort to 'save' some of my work that used to be on 2peas I'm going to publish my Patterned Paper Every Which Way Class. It was actually my first monthly class on 2peas...before the video days. There was a new layout each month featuring an idea on how to use patterned paper creatively. There is also a PDF with instructions for each page. Although the products are more than likely no longer available...the ideas are still applicable. I hope you enjoy the journey through 2010!

Once I get all 12 lessons published you can click on the link in the right sidebar to see them all in one place. Or use this link.

From the January 2010 PDF:

Patterned paper is really the coolest scrapbook supply out there. Itʼs versatility is endless....and thatʼs what weʼre going to be exploring in this class. This month we are using the patterned paper as an embellishment. To do this I chose a patterned paper with a well defined patterned, one I could cut out. Bold flowers really work well, but there are many other patterns you could use. Another great thing about using a patterned paper as your embellishment...itʼs very economical. If I had used chipboard pieces or even stickers for this layout it would have taken two or three packages probably. Instead I used a sheet of paper!

Remember those wedding shower cookies that I did a while back? Well, time for the wedding! The bride sent me her inspiration board for the wedding and said she definitely wanted to do some mason jar cookies with flowers. Her color palette was soft and creamy. I created about 100 full size cookies for her as well as about 50 mini cookies.

Last year I got kinda busy with things and let my Scentsy drop. I had enough stockpiled to last me a while. I continually got asked if I still sold it though. So after putting in the last of one of my favorite scents....and loving how good my house smelled...I decided to get reinstated. So, if your stash has dwindled like mine you can go here and get more! My site address is the same as before if you still have it in your bookmarks. I've got an open party "She's Back!"

January is Bring Back My Bar month....there are 20 scents that were voted as favorites and will only be available through the end of the month. Here is the flyer:

I have samples of all current scents as well as the BBMB scents. If you are local, stop by and smell! If you aren't local the descriptions given online are really very good. If you'd like to host and online party let me know! I can get it set up & create a Facebook Event for you.

It's been a slow cookie week...which is a nice break from my late nights in the kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the creative process of the cookies, but it's good for my sanity to have a bit of a break. I think I forgot how happy scrapbooking makes me. I know my supplies are about a year old. And the pictures are about the same. But the colors, textures, and memories....all fresh and happy. Thanks for welcoming me back to the scrapbooking world!!